Yeovil's Virtual Museum

Old's Close

Now Johnson Park

 

Old's Close (Parcel 1355) was a field, originally in the northeast corner of the great Medieval West Field of Kingston Manor. The Old family flourished in Yeovil in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The field was bounded on the north by Thorne Lane, on the east Lockyers Ground (1356), to the south by a field access track that would later become Boundary Close and to the west by Lower Grubhams (1353 and 1353a) and Higher Grubhams (1354).

The 1846 Tithe Apportionment noted that Old's Close was 6a 1r 0p and used as pasture for grazing livestock. The Apportionment noted that the owner of Old's Close was A'Court Daniell and the tenant was Charles Parsons.

Old's Close and Lockyers Ground were later combined and today the northern part is occupied by houses and gardens of Court Gardens while the remainder forms Johnson Park, named after William Walter Johnson who was Mayor of Yeovil from 1902 to 1904.

For details on historic land measurement (ie acres, roods and perches) click here.

 

This map, based on the descriptions in the 1589 Terrier and the 1846 Tithe Map of Yeovil shows the approximate boundaries of the Manors of Kingston and Hendford as well as the manorial three-field system used in Kingston.

 

A conjectural map of the great West Field of Kingston Manor showing ancient sub-fields, most likely common fields, within the overall bounds of West Field.

 

The Larkhill area reproduced from the 1842 Tithe Map. Old's Close is top left centre.

 

The 1946 aerial photograph showing Lockyer's Ground as the large field at top right in the junction of Thorne Lane (running across the top) and Ilchester Road (running diagonally across the top right). At bottom right is partially-constructed Eliotts Drive. By this time Lockyers Ground had been combined with Old's Close.

 

The same area today 'borrowed' from Google maps.

 

The 1842 Tithe Map superimposed (slightly out at the bottom) over a modern map.